A Week in the City of Gold

With hooks gathered and knowledge ready, Makar is about to go out and take on the city of Asalay by storm. But how much can one Architect, low on power and authority, do at this early stage? And what will happen if they overplay their hand?

Looking for the Rot

For the first week Makar assigned the following teams to background tasks: Uyazi and Dailio to rebuild their courtly reputation; Ezia and Kebri to research monster attacks in the Great Green; Yago and Kamatu to investigate problems in Lastrow regarding the Orthodox; and Zofara to build up connections in the Astral Arcanum and to look into the High Arcanum (Wizard School). 
While everyone else was busy with these ongoing tasks, Makar went out to look into possibility of The Rot having reaching Asalay. The natural first place to look is the Creep: a residential sprawl outside the city where people dump the uncared-for sick. The Creep, especially the outer creep, proved to be a decentralized mess where small community compounds monopolized control of the water and very few community institutions existed. Makar saw lepers and Gem Plague victims living in small colonies, and many sick people and people abandoned with mental illness were struggling to get by. The closest thing to pillars of the district are the two hospitals: the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon and the Sanctuary of Lily of the Halikvar. 
First Makar went to the Sanctuary of Lily (as a half dryad), and was welcomed as a potential interviewer to get the word out about the Halikvar temple's charitable efforts here. The Alkoa (druid-priest) who ran the temple, Hasab, talked with Makar and agreed to keep an eye out for any of this strange plague Makar described. Also, Makar and Hasab had a firm disagreement on whether mosquitos spread or cured malaria, and Hasab gave Makar the name of a number of prestigious Halikvar medical treatises on the matter. 
After that, Makar went to talk with the other Hospital - and was welcomed by that Hospital's head Ishkibite priest, a young and energetic human by the name of Peniten. While Makar waited for their appointment with Peniten, they listened in on the doctor's room and overhead them discussing whether a patient was physically sick or in a mental stupor. After introductions, Makar asked Peniten about this and told him about the Rot Plague; Peniten agreed to quarantine the patient. Makar asked to go in and do some tests to be sure, and Peniten agreed but only if Makar was quarantined for a number of days afterwards. Makar insisted that they were too important to quarantine and that it was unnecessary, but the priest wouldn't budge. Makar asked Peniten to perform the Divine Contact to get heavenly support on them not being a possible plague vector, and Peniten agreed. It was the end of the week of Agamine the Lost, and Agamine was highly suspicious of Makar and their request. Agamine told Makar about disturbances in Paradise and Purgatory, and gave a juicy piece of gossip: that Lily of Red had discovered growths into Paradise and was trying to destroy them without telling the others. Agamine also revealed that there were disturbances in Purgatory in which people were entering and exiting unexpectedly (with particularly nasty individuals exiting). Agamine and Makar had an otherwise pleasant conversation, where Makar encouraged Agamine's approach to divinity and validated their choices. 
While Agamine refused to support Makar's quarantine evasion quest, his answering of the Divine Contact at all gave Makar enough fodder to persuade Peniten that they were an expert on the matter and could be trusted. While it was a tough sell, Makar's silver tongue won the day!

Chatting Up the Plague

Makar went in and saw the patient, who was absolutely infected with The Rot. They had a few new weapons to try out, though: they knew the Rot's person-name from Kipilu's memories, they had second level spells, and they had more knowledge of how the Plague worked. They talked with the Rot, who they called out on being a person and tried to connect with emotionally. Kasmir (the Rot's person) seemed friendly enough but wanted some professional distance and refused to disclose too many personal details. They talked about inevitability, lack of agency, what they would do if they achieved total global power, and their relationship with the other Apocalypses (they seemed particularly annoyed at Verkhon, whoever that is). Makar revealed that Kasmir could never become a 'true person' and that even the Architects came from their own world of limited agency. Kasmir seemed deeply saddened by this. Makar also called out Kasmir on the whole "child killing" thing from Vikasha, and Kasmir assured them that the warlocks act independently of them but that the child is alright (though contagious) in Paradise. Ruh Roh.
While Kasmir stewed, Makar used the Detect Thoughts spell on the plague victim. They found a blank slate, totally under the control of the Rot. They then used the 'Mind Probe' part of the spell to go deeper into the empty vessel, and found something strange: a default set of commands, something like a set of programming placed on the vessel. Discoveries are as follows:

• The fundamental command of the body is to obey direct orders from Kasmir
• Above Kasmir's orders, the priority is to obey Plague Engine Commands and Plague Warlock Commands
• Above that order is the default order to contaminate water
• And most surface level is the order to follow the orders of whatever someone nearby says
• This specific body has no connection to or orders from either a warlock or an engine, likely demonstrating that none exist yet in Asalay
• Every infected body contributes their energy and focus to the creation or strengthening of a Plague Engine. Which Engine they contribute to depends on which region; the Rot has designated 18 possible regions around the world. The region that Asalay is a part of seems to be working towards the idea of "plague that can warp the flesh of the infected" 

Then, Makar used "Gentle Repose" on the infected. This cut off Kasmir's connection, turned off the programming, and left the body comatose on the ground. Makar exited the cell and talked with Peniten about all this. 
Peniten agreed to ask an ethics committee about the Infected but generally seemed amenable to killing the body and then burning the remains. They also checked over the patient notes and discovered that they were found in the Hospital's public drinking fountain not too long ago - and proceeded to launch a full-on alert to track all possible new infections. 

Cat Quest

With that settled, it was time to follow up on the cat lead. Only Makar could do this - no one else could reliably commune with the cats, especially as one of their own. The next day, Makar went to Murktown and set to work trying to find and talk with the local warriors. It took 4 days in total to finally make contact with the Murktown cats, given how terrified they were of outsiders. Specifically, a cat by the name of Cloudpaw from the Reedclan reached out to Makar after noticing that they were fruitlessly searching for help for that many days. 
Cloudpaw revealed that the Murktown cats had once been united as the toughest and strongest cat alliance in Asalay, a league of pious cat traditionalists who eschewed all humanoid help. Their leading clan was that of Skyclan, which occupied the tallest rooftops and maintained the Murktown Moonpool (a part of the fetid swamp that covers part of the district). Strange humanoids, cat-catchers, had targeted the Murktown cats with little success until they finally caught one of Skyclan's warriors. This warrior returned a week later and apparently asked for the Deputy of Skyclan for help in freeing other captured cats - luring them into an ambush. The Deputy and Warrior later returned, slightly off, and provoked the leadership of Skyclan into an unwise attack which proved to, again, be an ambush staged by an alliance of strays and humanoids in the Avenue. After Skyclan fell, the other clans received offers to be spared if they helped capture the other Murktown cats, and the clans of Murktown had been in war ever since. 
With that information, Makar had a clearer lead: strange cats and fighting in the Avenue would be conspicuous enough to follow up on. With that lead and the week more than finished, Makar returned to the group to convene for a day of catchup. 

Wrapup and Next Week

The reports from everyone: no critical failures, some success. Uyazi and Dailio had some minor success, but had to seek help from a selkie patron. Yago and Kamatu erred on the side of caution and had a picture painted of a veritable powder keg in Lastrow: banots playing politics with each other, a failed Crownguard raid on the Orthodox Desmian banot, and an investigation into the nearby Kivishta  banot that was pushing them towards and alliance with the Orthodox. The local Uvaran banot was siding with and hosting the Crownguard and investigators, while the local Keveket and Elemeer banots were trying to be neutral. Meanwhile, Zofara had found little evidence of warlock corruption but plenty of wizardly petty evils. 
The team with the most success was Kebri and Ezia. Their murder investigations were thorough and effective. They found that the Monster was a large flying creature, capable of poorly disguising itself as a tall, gangly humanoids, which killed with large claws and a damaging aura of violent fungal dismemberment. The creature apparently had an ambient clockwork ticking sound, and was both fast and intelligent. Its old lair was an abandoned mill in the Green, which was full of bones but otherwise was evacuated in an orderly way; it seemed to be taking people's letters, personal information, valuables, and pets/children (which were likely eaten). There was also evidence of a coverup: the outside investigator on the case visited the Old Mill but reported back that there was nothing there, and seemed to have thrown the investigation away from useful leads and into useless ones. Add in new reports of the humanoid form of the creature in Wyrmgarden, and you have a coverup... but why? And why haven't the attacks resumed there?
Makar mixed up the teams for the next week's investigations, to optimize results. 

• Ezia was moved to the Wizard School, to apply there and work undercover with Zofara on leads signaling corruption
• Kamatu and Dailio were placed together on reputation building 
• Uyazi and Yago were put together on searching the Avenue for leads on the cat situation
• Kebri was put on investigating the Dungeon
• Makar would take on the Lastrow situation themselves

As for the Lastrow investigation, Makar poked their nose into two involved Banots: Elemeer and Kivish. The Elemeer banot seemed to be hopeful that they could just ignore everything, though a few young hotheads were getting mad at perceived infringements by Orthodox "gangsters". The attitude towards the Crownsguard was hostile at best. The community's hopes all lay with a rising Elemeer Superstar from Reefport: Makova, a selkie adventurer, Elemeer convert, and joint-community advocate. Everyone seemed to believe that whatever happened, Makova would protect them. 
The Kivish banot was a lot more troubling. People were armed in the street; Kivish religious graffiti was everywhere, warning off intruders. Kivish Hardliners, religious fundamentalists, were on the rise, and the street was buzzing about how they had recently burned a massive pile of drugs and contraceptives seized across the community. Makar slid in easily as a newcomer Kobold who could speak flawless Wakingtongue, and found a banot divided: half seemed to be siding with the Hardliners, half seemed to side with the Worker's Guild (basically a recently made union). The Guild wanted solidarity with the Orthodox and with other banots, while the Hardliners wanted stronger boundaries and more internal control. Makar spent the rest of the day talking their way into a Guild meeting. Apparently, the Kivish and the Orthodox banots were both used for cheap labor at a massive new slaughterhouse owned by an Ishkibite noble working with the Kinrath Corporation. This group of Kivish had formed the Worker's Guild with the hopes of creating a secular institution that could unite the banots for better wages. They had been struggling before, but were just starting to make headway when a new group known as the Vigilance Club suddenly started becoming popular among the Orthodox workers. The Club banned members from joining the Worker's Guild and apparently agreed with the Slaughterhouse Boss to undercut the Guild's power. Now, the Club is apparently reaching out to both the Guild and the Hardliners floating offers of limited cooperation - as long as the Vigilance Club has total control of the slaughterhouse. The Guild was considering taking the offer, given that they were worried about the Hardliners taking it first and royally screwing them over. When asked about what this Vigilance Club was, the Guild members responded that it was some religious group kinda like the hardliners that were "from Seruvia or something". That last bit might need a little more research.

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS

• Leave for Samvara
• Investigate the broader fallout from the arrival of the Rot
• Collect allies for the coming struggle
• Meet up with Potha
• Investigate the Rot's person-origins
• Investigate the threats in Asalay

Relations

Allies

Ally List: Zofara, Yago, Uyazi, Kamatu, Dailio, Ezia, Kebri, Fastfin

Neutrals/Bystanders

Madrith Kalva: Makar's prism contact, a shy idealist with a touch of naivety. Madrith wants to stop the world from ending and has dropped everything to focus on that, and is generally shocked that other people aren't doing the same. Insulated by wealth and power, Madrith knows the mechanics of the world well without really understanding the people inside of those mechanics.
Hasab Azelvar: An esteemed Halikvar Alkoa who runs a walled temple-hospital-community complex in the Creep. Hasab is a well-studied pragmatist who is trying to expand his little community to dominate the Creep's resources and convert its people. While shrewd and ambitious, Hasab does genuinely want to help people and believes that the best way to take over is by providing cutting edge medicine and warm community support.
Peniten Vasavia: A young firebrand and idealistic Ishkibite priest, Peniten was on track for a big priestly career before he completely derailed it politically. He is happy stationed in the Creep to try and provide support for people. His temple is well established there as an excellent hospital (and has been for a while - hence the dumping of sick people in the district). Peniten is naturally suspicious of authority and is a stickler for protocol. 
Cloudpaw of Reedclan: A proud warrior of Reedclan in Murktown. 
Khoshi: A priestess of Elemeer in Lastrow.

Adversaries

Kasmir, the Rot, the Hand of Fate: An apocalyptic nightmare entity theoretically capable of ending the world itself, that has recently arrived in Vikasha. Sows disease and has begun infecting the dockworkers of Vikasha with something. Seems to be planning something big. Once was a person, a dryad, from somewhere where no king ruled. A person truly resigned to destiny, who silently hopes to one day have true agency.

Plot type

QUEST

Parent Plot

Dungeons and Dreamers

Subplots

• The Meat Grinder

Related Characters

• Agamine the Lost

Related Organizations

• Kingdom of Asalay

Related Locations

• Asalay